• 30 April 2021

    Rare win for Nepal indigenous groups as EIB admits ‘gaps’ in hydropower project

    By Rina Chandran, Thomson Reuters Foundation
    The European Investment Bank (EIB) has pledged to address gaps in the implementation of a power project in Nepal, handing a rare victory to Indigenous groups and local communities who had raised concerns about being uprooted from their land.
  • 14 April 2021

    As Impact Investing Grows, So Do Expectations

    By Andrew Mayeda, IFC Insights
    The industry needs to do a better job being accountable to communities directly impacted by projects, as individuals living near and working at investment sites bear the most risk if an investment has unintended environmental and social consequences, said Margaux Day, Policy Director at Accountability Counsel.
  • 25 March 2021

    This Tiny Fishing Town Was Poisoned By a Coal Plant. The Government Is Trying to Replace it With a Mine.

    By Leah Feiger and Raksha Vasudevan, Vice World News
    When local communities complain about projects, their adversaries are powerful, and complaint structures can be incredibly opaque and burdensome.
  • 20 January 2021

    Accountability in Action – Three Lessons in Centering Communities

    By Samer Araabi, Accountability Counsel
    Based on over a decade of working with communities around the world, Accountability Counsel has seen various pitfalls of not adhering to community-led accountability and developed recommendations for how to improve.  
  • 10 December 2020

    New CAO vice president urged to fight for CAO independence

    By Bretton Woods Project
    Margaux Day of Accountability Counsel emphasized that Janine Ferretti, the new vice president of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, will have to put her experience working on environmental and social safeguard issues at the Inter-American Development Bank to use as she endeavours to fulfil the terms of reference of the post during these challenging times.
  • 3 December 2020

    What we learned about the state of impact accountability from 74 investors

    By Margaux Day, Accountability Counsel in ImpactAlpha
    The International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact Management take a step to protect against impact-washing by requiring disclosures and verification. Genuine accountability requires more.
  • 30 November 2020

    Updating investment ‘exclusion lists’ for deeper social and environmental impact

    By Dmitry Fotiyev, ImpactAlpha
    Watchdog groups such as Accountability Counsel amplify community voices around the world to protect human rights and environment. While these organizations serve as advocates for those harmed by internationally financed projects, screening for potential adverse effects at the inception stage can identify issues that may be non-obvious to the project sponsors or financiers.
  • 19 November 2020

    Plan and Design the Project with Us: Advice from Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Fisherfolk

    By Sathivel Visvalingam of Sri Lanka Nature Group, Tom Weerachat of International Accountability Project, and Anirudha Nagar of Accountability Counsel
    Earlier this year, the Asian Development Bank withdrew its financial support for the Northern Province Sustainable Fisheries Development Project in Sri Lanka, effectively halting a years-long community-led effort to make funders accountable to community priorities. Anirudha Nagar
  • 22 October 2020

    From Juukan to Jharkhand: Demanding Accountability for Desecration of Indigenous Cultural Heritage

    By Anirudha Nagar, Accountability Counsel in The Wire
    In September, senior executives at mining giant Rio Tinto resigned over the destruction of ancient Aboriginal caves in Juukan Gorge in Western Australia after communities and investors alike voiced concerns that the company was failing to hold them accountable for their actions. This incident has focused attention on the need for accountability…
  • 7 October 2020

    Changes at the top for IFC and its accountability mechanism

    By Bretton Woods Project
    The IFC’s Chief Executive Officer, Philippe Le Houérou, announced that he will be stepping down from his position, effective 1 October.
  • 22 September 2020

    To reduce climate change learning curve, philanthropists lean on collaboratives

    By Catherine Cheney, Devex
    Philanthropists and impact investors who “intend to do good” with their money often have “a blind spot” because they fail to consider “the potential negative consequences in a real way,” said Natalie Bridgeman Fields, founder and executive director of Accountability Counsel.
  • 2 September 2020

    Myanmar’s indigenous people use ancestral customs to fight for land

    By The Star
    Indigenous people in south-eastern Myanmar want to stop poachers, loggers and agribusinesses from laying waste to the globally significant wilderness of Tanintharyi, home to threatened species like tigers and Asian elephants.
  • 18 August 2020

    Indigenous activists clash with UN over proposed park

    By Victoria Milko, Associated Press
    Indigenous and land rights activists in Myanmar say the “Ridge to Reef” conservation project will disrupt largely agrarian and fishing-based livelihoods among residents of about 225 villages in the proposed park area.
  • 5 August 2020

    USAID needs an independent accountability office to improve development outcomes

    By Margaux Day and Stephanie Amoako, Accountability Counsel in Devex
    As USAID sets its course for the near future, it should respond to a key congressional directive to strengthen accountability for its development activities. Doing so will help the agency be well-positioned to ensure its projects avoid harm and achieve their intended impact.
  • 21 July 2020

    Will impact investors welcome the arrival of mechanisms to redress community grievances?

    By David Bank, ImpactAlpha
    A conservation project in the Tanintharyi region in southeast Myanmar aimed to protect the area from unsustainable palm oil and rubber plantations and overfishing. Indigenous Karen and other communities, however, objected that the top-down project cut them off from their livelihoods, jeopardized ceasefires that had ended a civil war and prevented the…
  • 2 July 2020

    Come hell or piped water

    By Anirudha Nagar, Accountability Counsel, in Devex
    Indigenous peoples in Jharkhand, India whose sacred spaces and rights have been trampled on by a World Bank-financed water scheme are calling on the bank to take three steps that would demonstrate a meaningful commitment to accountability — and prevent further undermining of public confidence in the bank.
  • 26 June 2020

    Mongolie: dans le désert de Gobi, des nomades mongols face à un Goliath industriel

    By Gilles Sabrié, GEO
    In the south of Mongolia, a two-day drive from Ulaanbaatar, a giant mining complex has risen from the sand, disrupting the way of life of local herders. The story could have ended there, but the nomadic herders fought. Persistent and well advised, they negotiated with the mine to reach a historic compensation agreement.
  • 15 June 2020

    Taking stock of DFC’s early months

    By Adva Saldinger, Devex
    The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has been officially operating for about six months, and while it has met some goals, other early actions have raised questions about how the agency is delivering on its development mandate and living up to its required transparency and accountability standards.
  • 3 June 2020

    Southern Myanmar’s indigenous groups say the UN should scrap $21 million conservation plan

    By Skylar Lindsay, ASEAN Today
    Local residents and activists in southern Myanmar say indigenous experts are more effective at conservation than the UN, saying top-down plans for massive nature reserves will cut off locals’ access to food and land.
  • 27 May 2020

    Campaigners in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region oppose $21m conservation project

    By Daniel Quinlan, Mongabay
    Campaigners in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar have urged international donors to support community conservation efforts, rather than what they see as a top-down approach that excludes indigenous groups.